A JUDGE repeated her call for parliament to step in and ban so-called “legal highs” after she dismissed a case against the son of Liverpool MP Louise Ellman for selling them.

Sean Alex Ellman, 40, of Withington, Manchester and his company Salsa Enterprises Ltd, faced charges relating to the sale of a “legal high” called Gogaine.

The case followed a raid by Cheshire West and Chester council trading standards on Mr Ellman’s Dr Hermans “head shop”, in Eastgate Row, Chester, in September 2011, which resulted in the seizure of a large quantity of legal highs.

The raid followed test purchases made there by trading standards on August 26 and 31.

But District Judge Brigid Knight said the charges related to the samples taken during the test purchases, not to those later seized in the raid and sent off for analysis.

She said: “I do not know what the product is, I have no chemical analysis. If it contains a chemical substance – I do not know if it’s there because it has not been analysed. I don’t know the constitution, quantity, concentration or what effect – if any – they would have on anyone if they were to be consumed.”

She said the packets of Gogaine seized were clearly marked as harmful and not for human consumption and sold as “research chemicals”.

She said: “I would have expected these packets to be opened, I would have expected chapter and verse on what chemicals are in them.”

Judge Knight added: “An essential part of the prosecution case cannot be proven and I accept there is no case to answer.”

The prosecution alleged that Ellman did not provide purchasers with sufficient information about potential risks of the product, and he and his company Salsa Enterprises had two charges apiece under regulation six of the Consumer Protection from unfair trading regulations 2008.

But following her dismissal of the case, Judge Knight said it had been a “nightmare case” to prosecute as such “legal highs” fall outside of current regulations, and the type of person to buy such products would not be an “average consumer”.

She said: “I would repeat my call to parliament to look very urgently at the gaps in legislation and provide some protection to those who are not properly protecting themselves.”

Andrew Rees of Cheshire West and Chester trading standards said they had not believed the packets of Gogaine needing analysing as they were marked as being harmful and said the case had been important, adding: “We have young people going into a shop in the centre of Chester and they have a right to believe what they are buying is a legitimate product.”